After a rough early-season road trip in which they went 1-4, there were some serious concerns about the Los Angeles Lakers and what this team could be this season. But the team has responded well since then with LeBron James and Anthony Davis setting the tone during a six-game win streak.
Dalton Knecht was the star of the Lakers’ most recent win over the Utah Jazz, but LeBron also continued his outstanding stretch of play with 26 points and 12 assists. The Lakers’ offense has looked more crisp and fluid and James made note of the plays the coaches have implemented, as well as his teammates’ ability to make shots.
“We have some really good sets,” LeBron noted. “We have some really good movement, and the team trusts me a lot with the ball, and I’m just trying to put the ball on time, on target, to my guys. And it’s great to have guys that can make shots and guys that can make plays. AR, DLo. Obviously, AD, DK. Rui [Hachimura] when he’s in the lineup. We just try to keep guys’ defenses off balance.”
The Lakers have multiple players capable of taking over games at times. With James and Davis drawing so much attention, players like Knecht, Rui Hachimura and Austin Reaves are able to take advantage. While this win streak has admittedly not come against the strongest competition, all that matters is that the Lakers are piling up victories and LeBron feels they are shoring up some early-season issues that plagued them.
“We won. We’ve been playing the right way,” LeBron responded when asked what he’s liked about the Lakers’ win streak. “Man, I think we had some adversity that we handled very well on the road trip in New Orleans and San Antonio and then we come back home after a road trip and play some good ball.
“But, over the course of the winning streak, we just been playing the game the right way. We’ve been cleaning up a lot of things about transition defense, which has been really bad for us early on in the season. We cleaned that up. Cleaned our turnovers up. And then offensively, we’ve been very, very strategic and very on point, where we want to run and how we want to get to it.”
The Lakers are clearly a much-improved team from last year and already look better than they did just a couple weeks ago. This team has identified their issues and are working hard to correct them. As long as that continues to be the case going forward, and LeBron and Davis continue to dominate, they will be an extremely difficult team to deal with all season long.
Lakers’ LeBron James not surprised by Dalton Knecht’s recent performances
The story of the past couple of games for the Lakers has been the play of rookie Dalton Knecht. Even before his most recent career night, he was playing outstanding which may have been a surprise to many people, but not LeBron James.
“That he’s been a pro for a while,” James said of what this recent stretch shows about Knecht. “I talked about it last year, so it’s no surprise to me… No surprise to me.”
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